Messages - Oburi

I didn't think the Netflix Castlevania anime was all that great to be honest. The animation was ok, but the writing, especially the dialog, was really weak and unnatural. It turned me off throughout. Maybe it was a combination of the writing and the voice talent but almost every spoken line I thought sounded off and not natural for the fantastic medieval period it's set in (especially the jokes and light comedy) . I know it's a cartoon but the dialog sounded like it was written by a teenager. I could've done a rewrite that made it sound a million times more natural.

Have you been watching the JoJo Part 5 anime? I didn't read the manga so I'm just following along now, and it's pretty wild.

I just started watching JoJo. I'm in the middle of season 2. Haven't read the manga but the anime is a trip. I actually really love the first part. I don't know why people seem to not hold it in high regards. Similar to the first arc of Berserk, it might be a slightly rough around the edges in some areas, but it's essential to the overall story, even if the story does reset itself every so often. Since I went in completely blind, I was pleasantly surprised when around episode 9 both the main protagonist and antagonist "die", and the story jumps ahead a few decades.

Just finished S3. It was a real pile of shit. I implore anyone who was on the fence not to bother with it.

This was a brazen attempt to recapture some of the magic of season 1 by emulating a few steps along the way. But it's plain even early on that the script does not have enough material to cash the checks it is writing. I stuck around to see how it wrapped up, and now I'm sad I gave it a shot, given the warning signs. No not even Mahershala Ali could rescue this ship.

Bummer. Was hoping for something better, but I guess this confirms the worst. Thanks for the heads up.

At the very least they have condemned the acts of Gennon. That's where they draw the line. Pedophile? Deserves to die! But hey look at all those hotties that monster is raping and killing! How aggravating! WHY NOT ME?!

I only flipped through my book to get to the Miura interview, but when I came across that "Cutie" section all I had to see was the picture of the young slave boys to know that something was terribly wrong here. How does anyone familiar with the story not get a seriously creepy vibe from whoever is was ok with this? Missing the point or not understanding context is one thing, but this is outright disturbing.

I think I'm buying it out of curiosity more than anything. I still find it fascinating that there's an official book in print related to the Berserk universe and it's not written by Miura and it's actually been translated and released by Dark Horse. I HAVE to read this thing. I have almost no expectations. I've never read a novel tie-in to a manga before. I only assume it'll probably suck because everything does but I've got to see how exactly this fails.

It looks more and more like there's going to be virtually no reason to buy this edition except for collecting purposes. I'm relatively new to this community, so I ask you guys, has there ever been a case when Dark Horse listened to the community, particularly the people over here regarding changes to the official releases? I know Aazealh mentioned once that 2 DH editors had accounts on the site, and you seem to be pretty familiar with their procedures. Is there any chance a petition or a collective letter or something of the sort, asking for at least a few of these crucial changes to be made would manage to persuade them? I know, pretty naive and wishful question, but since they're showing such lack of professionalism, might as well consider the possibility.

To their credit they did upgrade the release schedule from a three month wait to a two month wait between volumes after pretty much every human buying them from Dark Horse complained about it. As Griff pointed out though the problem is all the weird decisions and bad choices made early on and throughout. I never quite understood why Berserk was chosen to be the experiment so many times while they released other, much less popular manga series with such higher quality.

Around the time I first started buying Dark Horse's Berserk volumes I also bought another favorite manga of mine that they had just started releasing called Eden. It was clear Eden got the better treatment. They were beautiful. So much care was put into it. The paper was of high quality, the outside was smooth and soft, translations were perfect, there was no corny designs to the logo or lame summaries on the back. It was clear which series was getting the better treatment. Yet, Berserk sold infinity better than Eden, to the point that they just gave up on releasing Eden at all. They just stopped in the middle of the series. I have half the series on my shelf. Too bad for me. Meanwhile Berserk was still getting shaft and worse still suddenly we had sound effect boxes on everything. Then we had one random book with different paper that stood out from the rest. The list goes on and on. If Dark Horse treated all their properties like that I would at least understand it, they just don't care enough, but there's an inconsistency that has nothing to do with sales so I just don't get it. Dark Horse has a chance now to really redeem themselves and do the series right. They are totally capable of it, and Berserk is a seller for them. It should be a win win.

But it won't of course because some suite wearing upper management douche hates Berserk and so they subtlety slight us every chance they get. At least that's what I believe.

It's unbelievable. Why sociability? lol Who gives a shit how social he is. We don't read Berserk because we're interested in seeing Guts try to make friends in the cafeteria on his first day at high school (... or maybe we are what do I know).

Regarding a retranslation, or at the very least a re-edit, There's a recent precedent. DH has gone back and revised their name for the Sovereign from the half-translated "King Hanafubuku" to "Flower Storm Monarch." So if they're going to do that, why not dig deeper and fix (some of) the older stuff too?

He's referred to as King Hanafubuku in the guidebook they just put out so...

In terms of other series that I like, Iím not sure if two-game series count, but one of my favorite series is Chrono Trigger. Even though itís unlikely that a new game will ever come out, such a game would be an instant buy for me. I think I own at least three different copies of Chrono Trigger, one of which is my original copy of Final Fantasy Chronicles, which I bought even though Iíve never owned a PS.

Another favorite of mine, in my personal top 5, would be the Suikoden series. Especially the first two. Those games had such a great continuity between them and was even doing the whole load your save file from the previous game into the new one for special cutscenes, extra dialog, returning characters and entire quests. Way ahead of it's time.

Another honorable mention goes to the Legacy of Kain series. Blood Omen, Soul Reaver and the final mash up of both series Defiance. Shouldn't be forgotten. The writer for that series, Amy Henning, went to work on another great series, the Uncharted games.

Oh boy, what a time to be alive. After all these long years of struggle, itís finally happened. I never thought Iíd see this moment, and now that itís finally here.... I donít know what to say. It does put me in a reminiscent mood. Like many of you have said before me, Iíve been on this wild ride for many years. My entire adult life, actually. How long has it been exactly? 18 years, I think, or close to. In the time that I first discovered Berserk, and longed for Cascaís sanity, I graduated high school, and college, my career has changed several times, I got married, had a kid, and separated. My interest waxed and waned over the years, partially due to the hiatuses, to Life, and also because I just never thought theyíd get off that fucking boat. In that time I have read and reread the series from first to last, and Iím in the middle of it again. The timing couldnít be better, as Iíve just come to Episode 82. But here it is! Itís beautiful. Itís wonderful. And itís heartbreaking. For so long Cascaís kept herself locked away from those horrific events, the death of all those she held dear, and the betrayal of the one she saw as her Savior. It broke her, and her madness was the last line of defense. Now sheís been forced to confront it, to relive those most painful moments, by those who thought they had her best interest in mind. Will she be thankful? Can she handle the harsh realities? Will she be able to come to terms with the truth, to accept the world she now finds herself in? I really donít have any insight to share. Itís been years since Iíve said anything here, or discussed Berserk at length, so youíll have to forgive me. Iím happy to see this forum is still living and breathing, and welcoming new strugglers! I really just wanted to peek my head in for once and share in this momentous occasion. (Apologies if I overshared there or didnít share enough )

DUDE, I swear to god the other day I was actually thinking that with all these crazy new developments I wonder if some old timers ( specifically Slightly Green, as I first knew you) would pop up. I'm so glad that's the case. Welcome back friend!

I don't know if anyone else mentioned it but I've been playing the new South Park game, The Fractured But Whole, and it's really great. Surprising long too. I'm 12 hours into and I'm still just scratching the surface. These guys are obviously big fans of classic open world RPGs and they are succeeding in turning the South Park world into a great series of games

That stew looks so good. I ended up being sick the last few days, woke up Christmas morning with the worst cold I've had in years. Now I'm back at work still ill (I've gone the whole year without using sick time, just a few more days and I'll get a big bonus) but at least I'll be able to listen to the skullcast while I'm taking it easy. Thanks guys!

I know this has been mentioned before at points but I was watching The Night Before Christmas with my son last night and I couldn't help but be reminded of the visual similarity between the evil wheelchair bound Dr. Finkelstein and GH member Ubik. Obviously coincidental, but Dr. Finkelstein is a great antagonist character that does indeed have an evil appearance which is very effective at being scary to young children. Something about those dark glasses tightly pressed into a bald white head and a creepy mouth with big lips. Miura tapped into this unique type of appearance with Ubik originally. Seeing Dr. Finkelstein in motion in the claymation style had me trying to visualize what Ubik would be like while watching his scenes, which I could picture well. I forgot how well done and unique Nightmare is, having not seen it in many years. Not much else quite like it.

Well, I got my ticket to 2049 at 3:30pm after work, before I have to come back for an 8pm meeting, but the fucking movie is so long I had to bypass a theater a few blocks away because it doesn't start there until "4:30pm" and if they don't it get going before five I might not have time to get back and setup for my own meeting! So, given the date I decided to play it safe with the earlier showtime and a short drive. Will update with my thoughts when I can (when I finally read the thread after the embargo I had to put on a few days back =).

As an aside, at first I tried making a date to see it with my dad this weekend, as I first watched the original with him like 20 years ago (), but, despite the positive word of mouth and his only begotten son wanting to take him, he's going to wait for it to hit cable. BOOOOOO! Well, then I'm not coming to visit this weekend, dad!

That's funny, I'm in the same position. My father and I are supposed to see it this weekend but since I work nights I have to try to find a showing that's earlier enough and close enough so that I can make it to work on time. But because it's so damn long, it's actually harder than I thought it would be. At least my dad did agree to go with me. I think that's just because he misses me though.

Dammit. I didn't realize the two part final was the last two episodes on the same night. For some reason I was under the impression that we had two episodes left and the final would be a two parter, like an extra long episode, like Game of Thrones just did. But it'll be over this Sunday. Bummer!

But yea Coopers return was triumphantly awesome. After the blueballs from when I thoughtCooper was returning after getting zapped, this was a jump up and yell type hype. I've been saying "100%" a lot the last few days with a thumbs up.

In terms of big epic spectacle like Walter said, I'd go with the death of Ganishka and the subsequent surprise appearance by Skullknight. The entire sequence, including the battle and the brief flashback of Ganishka's life, and then the panels with Skully appearing and Zodd caught off guard with Femto in his God Hand form is flawlessly done.

Honestly though another top "cool" moment is when Guts dons the armor for the first time and attacks the force sent to destroy Flora. I mean, it's just the coolest moment of the series. Doesn't get much better than that.

Runner up - The entire sequence towards the end of the Sea God episodes where Guts has his showdown with the massive creature by entering it and fighting his way through it's innards. That was a unique challenge for Guts and not the type of thing you get to see in much these days. As a young child, I was terrified when Pinocchio rescues Gepetto from Monstro the whale. That thing gave me nightmares and it stuck with me. It was great to see Miura utilize that in Berserk. Certainly a cool scenario for me.